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Alberich (World War I German operation)

Operation Alberich/Unternehmen Alberich
Part of World War I
Operation Alberich, March, 1917.jpg

New front line after Operation Alberich
Date 9 February – 20 March 1917 (withdrawal from 16–20 March).
Location Picardy, France
49°30′N 02°50′E / 49.500°N 2.833°E / 49.500; 2.833Coordinates: 49°30′N 02°50′E / 49.500°N 2.833°E / 49.500; 2.833
Result German victory
Belligerents

 British Empire

France France
 Germany
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Douglas Haig
United Kingdom Hubert Gough
United Kingdom Henry Rawlinson
German Empire Erich Ludendorff
German Empire Crown Prince Rupprecht
German Empire Fritz von Below
Unternehmen Alberich (Operation Alberich)
Part of Western Front 1914–1918
Type Strategic withdrawal
Location Noyon and Bapaume salients
Planned 1916–1917
Planned by Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern
Commanded by Erster Generalquartiermeister (Quartermaster-General) Erich Ludendorff
Objective Retirement to the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line)
Date 9 February 1917 (1917-02-09) – 20 March 1917 (1917-03-20)
Executed by Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern
Outcome Success

 British Empire

Operation Alberich (Unternehmen Alberich) was the codename of a German Army military operation in France during World War I. It was a planned withdrawal to new positions on the shorter, more easily defended Hindenburg Line (Siegfriedstellung), which took place between 9 February and 20 March 1917 and eliminated the two salients which had been formed in 1916, between Arras and Saint-Quentin and from Saint-Quentin to Noyon, during the Battle of the Somme. The British referred to it as the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line but the operation was a strategic withdrawal rather than a retreat.

Soon after taking over from Erich von Falkenhayn as Chief of the General Staff in at the end of August 1916, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, First Erster Generalquartiermeister ordered the building of a new defensive line, east of the Somme battlefront from Arras to Laon. Ludendorff was unsure as to whether retreating to the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) was the best thing to do, since withdrawing might diminish the morale of German soldiers and civilians. An offensive was considered if enough reserves could be assembled in the new year. A study suggested that seventeen divisions might be made available but that this was far too few for a decisive effect in the west. Ludendorff accepted the plan after representations by Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, commander of Army Group Rupprecht (1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th armies, from the Somme front to the North Sea coast) over the objections of the 1st and 2nd Army commanders.


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